Welcome to Hyperion Records, an independent British classical label devoted to presenting high-quality recordings of music of all styles and from all periods from the twelfth century to the twenty-first.

Hyperion offers both CDs, and downloads in a number of formats. The site is also available in several languages.

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Recordings

'Warmly recommended' (BBC Music Magazine)'Two exceedingly well-filled discs give us the cream of Rubinstein's piano music, beginning with the delicious Melody in F, his most famous compositio ...» More

Belgian pianist Arthur de Greef studied with Franz Liszt and also became a close friend of Grieg, who strongly admired his playing. He was a mainstay of the HMV catalogue in the 1920s and this set brings together for the first time his complete re ...» More

Philip Martin offers a delectable array of salon music at its finest, from household names such as Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, Mendelssohn and Grieg to somewhat rarer gems from Tekla Badarzewska and Ethelbert Nevin.» More

Details

Of Anton Rubinstein’s (1829–1894) colossal output of operas, symphonies, cantatas, sacred dramas, concertos, chamber music and instrumental solos, few will be familiar with any of his music other than his celebrated Melody in F (fewer still will ever have encountered its little lost sister, No 2 in B major). Yet, despite the lack of sustained development, the often loose, rambling style and the lack of real dramatic development, there is invariably an astonishing fund of striking ideas and felicitous melodic invention.

The Melody in F must be one of the world’s best-known tunes. Rubinstein composed it early in his career while staying on Kamennoi Island in the Neva, the home of Her Imperial Highness Madame la Grande Duchesse, Hélène Pawlona, to whom the work is dedicated. It is said that Rubinstein did not play it with the slow, sugary rubato to which we are accustomed but, rather, quite fast.